Read Green Left Weekly, our sister publication

GLW Radio on 3CR

Syndicate

Portugal's political crisis—what do people think?

After the Socialist Party (PS) had reached its
agreements with the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), Left Bloc and the Greens
(PEV) on the basis of an anti-austerity alternative to the conservative
Portugal Ahead coalition of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the
Democratic and Social Centre-People's Party (CDS-PP), the web site
Esquerda.net, interviewed a range
of Portuguese people to get their
comments. Translation by Dick Nichols.

'Cautiously hopeful' –Nuno Quadros (engineer, 45)

I have to say that on election night [October 4] I felt let down when I found
out that the PSD-CDS coalition had won. All that protest--in the end for what?
Sometimes, I confess, I don't understand the Portuguese. I hope that this
agreement is solid so that we can have a government that lasts the whole
legislature and puts an end to so much suffering and despair. I know that will
be difficult, but if there's the will we'll get there. Personally, I have not
been the most affected by the crisis but I know people who have lost a lot,
almost everything. Contrary to what some say, Antonio Costa is an intelligent
type--nothing has forced him to come up with this government. There has been a
lot of talk about stable government and now, for many, it doesn't matter any
more. I hope the President [Cavaco Silva], just for once, is up to his job and
allows this government to takeoffice.
That's why I am—still--cautiously hopeful.

'I just didn't want them to take away my livelihood'--Maria Conceição
(retiree, 73)

It's all very strange. The elections were over a month ago and still we have no
government. I don't know if it will be worth the effort of trying to fix up
what's already so rotten. My son who lives in Canada is always telling me to go
there, because Portugal is in the hands of a bunch of loonies. I just wanted
those who run things to take steps to improve people's lives. I've been around
for a long time and I have never seen so much misery as today. And then on
television they say everything's OK, I don't see it. That girl [Catarina Martins]
there from the... what's it called? The Bloc? Yes, the Left Bloc, They should
pay attention to her. I like listening to her. She defends the poor, pensioners
like me. But she's still very young, isn't she? Look, let's see. I've been
poor: now I just didn't want them to take away my livelihood. I worked hard to
raise my children and I just don't want to have to live from hand to mouth
before passing on.

'If it's just to improve people's lives, they will have my support'--Rui
Pereira (unemployed, 50)

Don't ask me the impossible, that is, to believe in politicians. Look, I didn't
even vote. My wife is always telling me I should vote because otherwise others
will choose for me. But choose what? There are jobs, but the good jobs are for
them. I've been unemployed for three years, my daughter manages to get work
from time to time and has even done a computer course. How are they going to
fix that up? Tell me that. The other one [former SPD prime minister Passos
Coelho] also said that with him the sacrifices would end and then we saw what
happened. Who can guarantee me that the same thing won't happen again? Some
steal and the rest of us, if necessary, die of hunger. I'm sorry if I'm not
telling you what you maybe wanted to hear but I don't find any of them convincing.
Still, if this time just for once it [the agreement] is to improve people's
lives, they will have my full support.

'No country can progress on the basis of poverty and inequality'--Sonia
Andrade (designer, 37)

"There are many differences between the parties [of the parties of the
left] but I don't see that they are insurmountable if the country's interests
are to come first. The PSD-CDS coalition won but without a majority and since
they failed to make an agreement with the other forces aren't in a position to
continue to rule, and so have to go into opposition. So there are no grounds
for so much hysteria and drama. They talk about"coups" and "opportunism" , which is nonsense. In
other countries these sort of situations take place and no one goes in for this
sort of lunacy. Maybe it's because there are many interests hidden behind this
and they are afraid of losing their room to maneuver. The recent years have
been horrible, everything is worse. No country can progress on the basis of
poverty, unemployment and inequality. Few young people think of staying in
Portugal, and the others will be battling to see if they can survive. Is that
the future? I'm not afraid of the Bloc and the communists. They are people like
everyone else, with their ideas and their values. I have hope in this
alternative solution for government. I hopethat the agreement is strong and doesn't give in to the climate of fear
that some are already working to spread around.

'The PS should go into opposition'--Antonio de Sousa (lawyer, 63)

I have voted for the PS since the first elections [after the dictatorship] and
I believe that what António Costa is about to do is suicide, not only for the
party but also for the country. An understanding with parties of the
ideological characyer of the Left Bloc and the communists isn't possible.
Portuguese democracy was built on the basis of the fight by the PS and others,
but above all by the socialists led by Mario Soares, who fought against the
communists who wanted to make Portugal a satellite country of the former Soviet
Union. Can you imagine where we would be if they (the communists) had won in
1975? I know that the world has changed a lot since then, but the PCP hasn't
changed in the least. It lives in a world that no longer exists and that can be
very dangerous for the future of our country. In my opinion, the PS should have
gone into opposition and worked constructively with the PSD and the CDS, in
this way preparing itself for future elections. The PS general secretary should
not want to be prime minister at any price. Attitudes of this kind degrade
political life and that's why abstention has increased at such a worrying rate.
Europe is watching us. And the image that we convey to them is pretty
unedifying. We have been living in liberty for over 40 years but it seems to me
we have learned little from that.

We need to find other solutions and that's why this accord has my full support.
Portuguese democracy has many weaknesses that need fixing. After so many years
it is inconceivable that we have not yet succeeded in eliminating poverty
levels that should embarrass anyone who has been in power. Debates aboutincreases of €10 to €15 in wages of between
€500 or €600 are, in my opinion, shameful. I know that the agreement is timid,
but it's still preferable to take small steps rather than continue to have a
government that only knows how to conjugate the verb “to cut” in everything
that has to do withessential services,
namely health, education and social support. That's what Passos Coelho did and
the results are plain to see. Last summer I went on holiday to Holland and the
friends of mine who are more more attuned to these situations asked me several
times how the Portuguese can make do with very low incomes without rebelling. I
am always left without an answer to this sort of question, because despite
living here I also find it hard to find an explanation for such apathy.

I had high hopes when SYRIZA won the elections in Greece and so I
participatedin nearly all the
solidarity initiatives that took place in Lisbon. In the end, I got hit with a
bucket of icy water.

These types talk a lot about markets, deficits and debts and forget people.
That's why we need to change all this. I look at this agreement as a small step
that can gradually recover what has been stolen from us. Because only in this
way will we manage to regain our dignity. I just hope I don't get disappointed
again.

I would like them to tell me where it is written that the parties to the left
of the PS can't enter into agreements with a view to forming a governmental
majority, as is happening now.

The coalition of the right is showing the same arrogance and lack of feeling
for democracy that it demonstrated while in government. Cavaco Silva,
regardless of the decision he is to take, will go down in history as someone
who never broke free of his party connections [as a former PSD prime minister],
in this way perverting the functions belonging to the role ofPresident.

Some commentators and journalists have also been showing a bias incompatible
with the exercise of that profession, which in a democratic regime should not
deviate from telling the truth. In this way they have covered up the game of
the right wing and have opened up the chest of memories so as to stir up the
spectres of a past that is simply that--past.

Speculation, lies and insults are the weapons they use to discredit an
agreement that aims to be an alternative to the failed policies of Coelho and
[CDS leader Paolo] Portas. I ask myself: what are they scared of?

Although they have given victory to the coalition, I am convinced that most
Portuguese no longer support austerity that always hits the same people: a
closed circle and as such without any end in sight. This agreement may not be
ideal but in the circumstances we're living in it represents a hope. A hope for
all of us and especially for those who have been pushed into the limbo of
unemployment and growing poverty, at the mercy of charity policies and as such
to the liking of the government and of some organisations that have turned
poverty into a business.

'If the parties were the same, democracy would be unnecessary'--Daniel Ramos
(final year student, Communication Sciences, 24)

I finish my course this year and like most of my colleagues I am thinking of
leaving Portugal because the job opportunities are very slim here.

Nonetheless, this agreement opens up some expectations because it aims to end
austerity and so restore employment. If that happens, I would prefer to stay in
Portugal and I know that many of my friends who have already left would also
end up coming back eventually.

I'm young, and so I don't know much about the fights that these parties [of the
left] have had with each other. I know they are different and will continue to
be so. For me that is positive because if people were all alike we would have
no choice. Which is meaningless in a democracy.

I heard the speech of Cavaco Silva [on October 22] and I think that it was very
negative. A president should not adhere to any party. He must above all
distance himself from them because he represents the whole country. But Cavaco
is PSD and was never neutral in his decisions.

I belong to a generation that has been apolitical. Although not belonging to
any party, I am aware of reality and therefore have a very negative reading of
the PSD-CDS government. They chastised the people a lot, and accused them of
being responsible for the financial problems of the country. At university, I
have colleagues who had to interrupt or abandon their studies because they have
no means to continue their course. My father was unemployed for a year, but
despite the difficulties we have had, we have managed to hold on.

The ideology underlying these policies has a very negative economic and social
impact, since it favours individualism at the expense of solidarity. And in the
end, those who have greater economic capacity “win” and the rest are excluded.
The life culture they are trying to instill in young people today passes
through overvaluing ultra-eogism, as if this were a virtue and an unavoidable
path to our personal and professional fulfillment. Maybe because of this they
have mistreated our older people, because they are no longer productive. My
grandmother, who worked very hard for many years came to our house one day and
cried a lot because they had cut off her retirement pay. Which is unfair, isn't
it?

If being against this sort of society is being on the left, then you put me
down as being on that side. Andwelcome
to the agreement which means that I and many others do not have to pack up and
go abroad in search of a decent life.